Women who have visited almost any abortion clinic in the United States have seen anti-choice protesters outside, wielding placards and chanting abuse. A Boston advertiser’s technology, when deployed by anti-choice groups, allows those groups to send propaganda directly to a woman’s phone while she is in a clinic waiting room.

Excerpts:

Last year, an enterprising advertising executive based in Boston, Massachusetts, had an idea: Instead of using his sophisticated mobile surveillance techniques to figure out which consumers might be interested in buying shoes, cars, or any of the other products typically advertised online, what if he used the same technology to figure out which women were potentially contemplating abortion, and send them ads on behalf of anti-choice organizations? SNIP Flynn’s targeting of women seeking abortion presents a serious threat to the privacy and safety of women exercising their right to choose, as well as to abortion providers and their staff, a Rewire investigation has found. But due to weak and patchwork laws governing privacy and data collection in the United States, the conduct appears to be perfectly legal. SNIP

Setting the Record Straight on theNTP Cell Phone Cancer StudyRon Melnick Corrects ‘Misinformation’ in the NY Times

On May 31, the New York Times ran a piece in what it calls
“The Upshot” on the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) cell phone animal
study. The column is a regular feature in the Times that seeks to give readers
context for stories in the news. This one was titled “Why It’s Not Time to
Panic About Cell Phones and Cancer.” It was written by Aaron Carroll, a
pediatrician at the University of Indiana School of Medicine. He expressed
skepticism about the study results, calling the effort "imperfect."

Carroll's critique prompted a response from Ron Melnick, who
led the study’s design team before retiring from the NTP. In an eight-point
rebuttal, Melnick corrected what he called “numerous and misleading
statements.”

Thursday, June 09, 2016

Technology is making us blind: The dangerous complacency of the iPhone era

Following is an oldie (2014) but goodie from Salon.com which is quite relevant to recent postings on “A Brave New World”.

Don

*********************

The rise of smartphones and social media has ushered in a new age of techno-optimism. And that’s a big problemCharles HowarthNov 30, 2014

Excerpt

The technology pages of news media can make for scary reading these days. From new evidence of government surveillance to the personal data collection capabilities of new devices, to the latest leaks of personal information, we hear almost daily of new threats to personal privacy. It’s difficult to overstate the implications of this: The separation of the private and public that’s the cornerstone of liberal thought, not to mention the American Constitution, is being rapidly eroded, with potentially profound consequences for our freedom.

As much as we may register a certain level of dismay at this, in practice, our reaction is often indifference. How many of us have taken to the streets in protest, started a petition, canvassed a politician, or even changed our relationship with our smartphone, tablet or smartwatch? The question is why are we so unconcerned?

We could say that it’s simply a matter of habit, that we have become so used to using devices in such a way that we cannot imagine using them any differently. Or we could, for example, invoke a tragic fate in which we simply have no option but to accept the erosion of our privacy because of our powerlessness against corporations and governments.

These are, however, retrospective justifications that miss the kernel of the truth. To reach this kernel, we have to excavate the substratum of culture to uncover the ideas that shape our relationship with technology. Only here can we see that the cause is a profound ideological shift in this relationship.

5 major stories, 2 comment periods open.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,This is an update of recent events in a busy month. Please forward this to your own networks to help maximize the number of public comments.

1. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has decided not to clean up the toxic mess left by the Navy at â€œNaval Auxiliary Air Station Quillayute,â€ a currently unused 4,200 foot runway on the Olympic Peninsula west of Forks, WA. Until 3 days before the comment period closed, few knew about this because the USACE had failed to put the documents online; thanks to eagle-eyed people and others who quickly sent comments before that deadline, we got an extension that ends on June 26, and our request was granted for the documents to be put online. The documents are here: http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/EnvironmentalProjects/FormerNavalAuxiliaryAirStationQuillayute.aspx

Suggestion for incorporating into your comment:I do not agree with the USACEâ€™s decision to not clean up the toxic contaminants at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Quillayute. With its tetraethyl lead sludge disposal area, PCBs, VOCs and carcinogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, some of which exceed federal screening criteria, this area requires decontamination. Since carbon tetrachloride exceeding federal standards has been consistently detected in one residential water supply well, and has been occasionally detected in five other wells, and since the USACEâ€™s report concludes with four major uncertainties concerning future use of the site, it would be a mistake to not clean it up. Itâ€™s widely known that Formerly Used Defense Sites such as NAAS Quillayute are often left heavily contaminated, so shifting the blame and thus the responsibility for the source of some of those contaminants from the Navy to residential use of household cleaning supplies is absurd and unethical. Unless this site is to be used as an emergency runway in the event of a major disaster such as an earthquake, I further categorically object to any reactivation of NAAS Quillayute by the military for routine or training takeoffs and landings of jets, helicopters or drones, or storage of fuel, weapons, equipment or other non-disaster military assets.

2. A story on how the Navy is about to forcibly evacuate indigenous peoples from the island theyâ€™ve inhabited for 3,000 years so it can use the island as a live bombing range is here. The West Coast Action Alliance is in touch with representatives for these people.

3. The FAA just issued a warning to pilots on the US west coast that the Navy will be testing a device (or devices) that will potentially jam GPS signals for as long as six hours per day on multiple days this month. A look at the map in this article that broke the story shows 9 states and large areas of Mexico affected with outages. Although news articles say that devices below 50 feet of elevation will not be affected, itâ€™s widely known that hills exist in these areas. The map shows large areas of ocean will also be affected; GPS devices aboard commercial ships are often found in or near the wheelhouse, many of which exceed 50 feet above sea level. We have searched the internet for an EIS or an Environmental Assessment on this, because such widespread adverse effects would appear to qualify as a major federal action with potentially serious consequences for commercial and private aircraft and shipping; unfortunately, we have not been able to locate such a document. If that's the case, lack of NEPA and adequate public notification on such a project would appear to be outside the law.

4. Victims of hazardous Navy jet noise on Whidbey Island took their complaints and pleas for help to the Washington State Board of Health on June 6. According to Dr. James Dahlgren, whose declaration was shared with the Board, the noise that residents are being subjected to represents a â€œpublic health emergency.â€ Dahlgren is Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Toxicology. The State Board of health is being asked to get involved because reactions from the local board ranged from dismissal to ridicule. Story here.

5. A humpback whale died underneath the Navyâ€™s docks at Bremerton last week. Necropsy revealed it did not die from starvation but from â€œmore acuteâ€ causes, such as bruises caused by being trapped under there. This raises a lot of questions, such as: why did it swim under those docks? With the Navyâ€™s most recent EIS stating it will be conducting 284 acoustic testing events per year at its docks, could the whale have been panicked by a sonar or acoustic blast? Story here.

Can anything be done about noise and marine mammals? Yes. Read about NOAAâ€™s â€œOcean Noise Strategy Roadmapâ€ summarized in this New York Times article and show your concern by sending comments to:Comment.ONS@noaa.gov Your subject line should say "ONS Roadmap Comments" and email your comments until July 1, 2016. Include any citations to scientific literature or analysis you know of, as this is a search for information, too.

The health of whales is an indicator of the health of our oceans. The health of our oceans is an indicator of the health of our planet. Even the most jaded person cannot ignore the fact that a group of scientists estimate our oceans are worth $24 trillion dollars, and that if the ocean was a country itâ€™d be the seventh largest economy on the planet. Finance aside, the way we treat these intelligent cetaceans will be a measure of our collective humanity.

The way our military treats the people it is supposed to serve is a measure of the state of our democracy. The way the people respond to such treatment is a measure of their willingness to insist that their voices be respected.

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Elon Musk's Brave New World: Become cyborgs or risk humans being turned into robots' pets

Elon Musk envisions a future “Brave New World” where, in order to keep up with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, future humans (those who can afford it that is) will have to have a “neural lace”, embedded within their brains, becoming cyborgs, or super humans, in order to keep pace with the technology. An interesting concept worthy of the best of SiFi writers but consider that such technology would not come cheap. No coverage through medical insurance, ensuring that only the elites of the world will be able to afford having a neural lace implanted within their brains.

Essentially what Musk is envisioning is an Olympian super race – part human/part AI, essentially populated by only those who can afford it – the 1 % of the world’s population who now owns half the world’s wealth. As for all those who cannot afford joining the lofty Olympians with all their neural lace emplants, what future for them? A high-tech serfdom perhaps?

The Pentagon’s Mad Scientists Are Working on Mind Control

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has an incredible reputation for a group of super-scientists who create potentially world-ending weapons and technology.

The Pentagon’s mad scientists helped create the Internet, GPS and stealth fighters. Now they’re working on self driving cars, artificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces. If you’ve read about in a science-fiction novel, there’s a good chance DARPA it trying to do it.

The powerful military organization operates behind a wall of secrecy and often the gulf between what it says it’s working on and what it’s actually working on is enormous. Today on War College, we sit down with author and journalist Annie Jacobsen to talk about her Pulitzer Prize-nominated book The Pentagon’s Brain.

Jacobsen spent years researching DARPA, interviewing its scientists and digging through its histories. Not an easy task for an organization so intent on staying private. What she discovered is both exciting … and terrifying.

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

New paper: The WHO EMF Project: Legitimating the Imaginary of Global Harmonization of EMF Safety Standards

NOTE: David Mercer, the author of this paper was my supervisor at Wollongong University for my thesis The Procrustean Approach.This is well worth a read!

Don

The WHO EMF Project: Legitimating the Imaginary of Global Harmonization of EMF Safety Standards

DAVID MERCER

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 2 (2016), 88-105

Abstract (excerpt)

An important topic for studies of STS and globalization are the ways “global” institutions createand attempt to implement health guidelines and safety standards to address risks associated withnew technologies. In the following discussion this topic is examined through a case study of theactivities of the World Health Organization’s Electric and Magnetic Field Project (WHO EMFProject). EMF exposures are associated with telecommunications and electrical infrastructure,most notably high voltage power-lines, radio and cell towers and the use of mobile telephones.The controversy over setting international safety standards and health guidelines has simmeredfor a number of decades. The mainstream “regulatory science” position has been that it isunlikely EMF’s constitute a significant health risk and therefore minimal regulatory interventionor significant precautionary considerations are required. A small but persistent stream ofscientific studies nevertheless have continued to raise significant health concerns and have led tocalls for regulators to build stronger precautionary approaches into EMF standards andguidelines.

Microwave News: One Type of Brain Tumor IS Going Up, the Deadliest Kind

Excerpt

Media on NTP Cancer Study: It’s Hype

One Type of Brain Tumor IS Going Up, the Deadliest Kind

Senior managers at the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released the preliminary results of their cell phone radiation study late last week. They were so concerned about the elevated rates of two types of cancer among exposed rats that they felt an immediate public alert was warranted. They considered it unwise to wait for the results to wend their way into a journal sometime next year. Not surprisingly, the NTP report generated worldwide media attention….The New York Times gave the NTP report zero credibility, arguing it can’t mean much because brain tumor rates are not going up. Actually, however, the deadliest and most virulent type of brain tumor, GBMs, is increasing.

Royal Canadian Police Summoned on Wi-Fi Threat

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, famed worldwide as “rescuers” and titans of justice, has been summoned by Capt. Jerry Flynn (ret.) to rescue Canada from radiation pollution.RCMP, also known as “the Force” and the “Mounties,” is a federal national police force that works on a contract basis with three territories, eight provinces, 190 municipalities, 184 aboriginal communities and three international airports.Flynn this week called on the Public Health Agency of Canada to direct RCMP “to conduct a criminal investigation into Canada’s radio frequency and extremely low frequency scientific community beginning with Health Canada’s radiation protection bureau.”He spent 22 years in electronic warfare and signals intelligence for the Canadian Armed Forces. For two years he was the sole EW officer charged with supporting the Canadian EW Company. He also worked closely with U.S. and NATO army EW units.He says the RCMP “must be directed to conduct a criminal investigation into the industry’s stranglehold on Canada’s radio frequency electro-magnetic radiation and extremely low frequency scientific community beginning with Health Canada’s radiation protection bureau.”

Security of Canada and U.S. in Danger“Canada’s National Security, like that of the U.S., is in grave danger because of its indefensible decision to employ wireless ‘Smart’ meters as the basis for its national electric power grid! Through their investigation, the RCMP will learn that no communication system in the world is more insecure and more vulnerable to attack than is a wireless radio system. “Today’s pandemic corruption could not happen were it not for the sinfully silent North American media oligopoly, who have not allowed governments or the public to know that this same fight (against RF EMR and ELF EMFs) is also going on in European countries and Australia and has been for many years! Or that EHS is recognized in many countries of the world! Or that various countries have imposed the ‘Precautionary Principle’ in order to protect their people from today’s man-made radiation!”

Scientists Setting Guidelines Faulted by FlynnFlynn’s letter to the Health Agency includes the following:Just one former HC scientist, Dr. Michael Repacholi, played a key role in establishing RF radiation exposure ‘Guidelines, not just for Safety Code 6 (SC6) but also for two of the three international Regulatory Agencies: ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection), for which he was the inaugural chairman and is now chairman emeritus; and the WHO (World Health Organization)!For at least the past 10 years, a second former HC scientist, Dr. Art Thansandote, has been – and still is – Co-Chairman of the omnipotent US Air Force and US Army-dominated sub-committee (TC95, SC-4) that establishes the USA’s RF ‘Guidelines’. Dr. Thansandote retired from HC in 2012!In 2013, HC’s RF exposure ‘Guidelines’ were essentially identical to those of ICNIRP, WHO and the USA. Though reduced approximately 66x last year, SC6 (2015) ‘Guidelines’ are still considered to be dangerously high!HC selected ‘elite’ ICNIRP scientists (remember Repacholi) known to have strong ties to industry to be members of its ‘independent’ Expert Panel, which was established to review the adequacy of SC6 (2013) RF exposure Guidelines!The same Dr. Repacholi also played a key role in establishing ‘safe’ exposure limits for extremely low frequency (ELF) or powerline (60 Hz) electro-magnetic fields (EMFs), which are present in anything in which electricity flows, e.g., high voltage transmission and distribution lines, substations, power transformers, household electricity, electrical appliances, tools and machinery, automobiles, ‘Smart’ meters, etc.

Pulsed, Non-Thermal Radiation Is DangerousHC’s Radiation Protection Bureau and their colleagues in the wireless and telecom industry and electric power utilities have successfully co-opted most, if not all, provincial and municipal governments, and provincial health officers (PHOs) into believing that both RF EMR and ELF EMFs are safe – neither of which is true!All of today’s consumer wireless radio products and ‘Smart’ meters and ‘Smart’ appliances emit ‘low-level, pulsed, NON-thermal radio and microwave frequency radiation’;HC, ICNIRP, WHO and the USA stubbornly recognize only THERMAL radiation. Their common mantra is: “If the radiation does not heat the skin, it cannot be harmful.” Consequently, the public in Canada and in other western countries are afforded no protection against today’s hazardous NON-thermal RF EMR!HC, ICNIRP, WHO and the USA also refuse to recognize that ELF EMFs can be hazardous to humans and other life forms, especially when the exposure is constant! Consequently, the public in Canada and in other Western countries are afforded no protection against ELF EMFs!HC, ICNIRP and the USA all refuse to recognize that electro-hypersensitivity “EHS” is a legitimate physiological condition, which a significant percentage of the global population experience when exposed to man-made ELF EMF and/or RF EMR.The above amounts to the largest, most preposterously despicable crime against humanity in Canada’s (the world’s) history and must be stopped! By doing so, Canada’s National Security can be sensibly restored, as can protection for the health and safety of all people and other forms of life in Canada. Once the guilty parties have received their due justice and the media ownership issue has been satisfactorily addressed, Canada can once again claim to be a democratic country. But for any of that to happen, the truth must come out – NOW!

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About Me

While I have always been extremely health conscious and am presently in excellent health, I did become temporarily out-of-commission (i.e. I was really sick) in 2005 with a number of at the time unexplainable symptoms. I was quite puzzled at the time because I had been eating mainly organically grown food, drinking spring water, doing Yoga every morning, and going to the gym several times a week. In other words, I was doing everything one is supposed to do to stay healthy. I was not supposed to get sick. It took me six months before discovering or even imagining the main source of the problem - which was in fact "overexposure to electromagnetic" - especially microwave - radiation. I was living within 200 meters of two cell phone towers at the time and within 500 meters of a 3rd one with numerous WiFi signals bleeding into my apartment from adjacent neighbors. I developed a host of symptoms, which are found in what has been misleadingly described as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) -- but much more accurately described as Radio Wave or Microwave Sickness. Large numbers of people in the USA suddenly started getting sick in 1984...